Hulu’s Darby and the Dead is the queer teen comedy we’ve been waiting for. It’s funny, heartfelt, and LGBTQ+ inclusive both in front of and behind the camera. It’s exactly the kind of movie that we would have loved to have watched (and rewatched, and rewatched) growing up.
The latest from trans director Silas Howard (Tales of the City, Pose, Dickinson, A League of Their Own), Darby and the Dead follows a teen girl, Darby Harper (Riele Downs), who has the gift, or perhaps curse, of seeing ghosts following a near-death experience. When she’s not dealing with the drama of being a teen, she counsels ghosts struggling in the afterlife. When the school’s most popular girl, Capri (Auli’i Cravalho), meets her untimely demise the two girls connect and change one another’s lives, well, life and afterlife.
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PRIDE sat down with the stars of Darby and The Dead to chat about what makes this film such a modern fresh take on the beloved teen drama genre, and representing a queer audience.
“I feel like there are just so many different messages in the story, which I think is wonderful. For starters, just the fact that we’ve never really seen a teen movie done with a supernatural twist and also done with real depth to it,” Downs tells PRIDE. “I think a lot of young people could use a movie that is sort of talking about grief, because you don’t see that very often, especially in a movie that is still fun and has all these other elements.”
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She sees this film both as lighthearted and fun for the audience but also as an opportunity to reach people who may be suffering and feel less alone. “I hope that a lot of young people who may be experiencing the loss of somebody important in their lives can feel more at home in this film,” Downs says. “Because really, every character in this film is experiencing that grief and loss in a different way. And you get to see the different ways it manifests. So I just hope that they find somebody that they can relate to.”
Cravalho agrees and adds that the diversity in the film also enables it to speak to a new generation of people who deserve to see themselves represented. “I’m also really excited to have a new take on an iconic teen film, we had our North Stars of Mean Girls and Heathers and Clueless, which we’ve seen, and to be honest, we know the trope of the three white girls walking down the hall, like we have that iconic visual in our heads, but to change that up to have more inclusive and diverse casting,” she tells PRIDE.
Cravalho was also drawn to how layered the film’s characters are. “What drew me to Capri was that we learn she’s not just a mean girl,” she reveals. Cravalho points to one theme in particular that resonated with her. “To have this film be about a female friendship and finding each other again and appreciating what they can learn from each other [was meaningful],” she shares. “There’s so much to take from this film, but I hope that people resonate with that female bonding.”
Cravalho, an out actor, is aware that being visibly out and thriving serves as inspiration for young queer people, and that is deeply meaningful to her. “It’s really beautiful to know that I have an impact like that. I mean, I’m 21, and to know that the representation that I bring on-screen encourages people to not only follow in my footsteps but to also be out and proud about. If that is your story, it doesn’t hold us back and it might have in the past. But now we’re making space for these stories,” she assures.
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Cravalho adds that she can’t help but infuse queerness into all of her roles. “Any character that I play, even Capri, I’ve added my own little campiness to her, and I think it just works. She’s fun!” she concludes. “Some of my best friends and some of my favorite characters that I’ve seen on screen, have these big personalities that simply cannot be tamed.”
Darby and the Dead is streaming now on Hulu.
